SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 13, No. 5, August 4, 2014

INDIA

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Chhattisgarh: Sukma - Region of Sorrow
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

On July 28, 2014, a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre was killed and three personnel of the 150th battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), including an Assistant Commandant, Alok Kumar, were injured in an encounter in the forest near Ramaram village under the Chintagufa Police Station limits in Sukma District. Police recovered the body of the slain Maoist after the exchange of fire was over. Police later claimed that reliable sources indicated that another ten Maoists, including ‘five commanders’, were killed, though Police did not recover any other bodies.

Earlier, on July 7, 2014, two troopers of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) of the CRPF were injured in an encounter with the Maoists in forested patches of Karikunda under Bhejji Police Station limits in Sukma District. According to Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Neeraj Chandrakar, during a combing operation in the forested patch, the Security Forces (SFs) suddenly came under indiscriminate firing by the Maoists.

Sukma was carved out of Dantewada as a separate District in January 16, 2012, and occupies an area of 5635.79 square kilometres, with a population of 250,159 (census 2011). It shares its borders with Maoist-infested the Bastar, Bijapur and Dantewada Districts of the State to the north and west, Malkangiri District of Odisha to the east and Khammam District of Telangana to the South. Some 3,500 square kilometres of Sukma, more than 75 per cent of its total area, are under thick forest cover. The forest cover, terrain and location of the District give the Maoists a distinct advantage in their campaigns to establish disruptive dominance and evade action by SFs.

The location of major incidents (each involving three or more fatalities) as part of Dantewada District, the newly established Sukma District caught the attention of the nation with the high-profile abduction of the District’s first Collector, Alex Paul Menon, on April 21, 2012. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the District has already registered 23 fatalities (2 civilians 20 SF personnel and one Maoist) in five incidents of killing in 2014, out of a total of 67 fatalities in Chhattisgarh. There were 56 fatalities in 16 incidents of killing in the District in 2013 (out of 128 in Chhattisgarh), and 16 fatalities in nine incidents of killing in 2012 (out of 108 in Chhattisgarh).

While Maoists fatalities have increased since the formation of the District, civilians and SF fatalities reflect a sharper increase, and account for about 36 per cent and 48 per cent of the total, respectively.

The District has witnessed four major incidents since its formation in 2012, resulting in 31 fatalities [two civilian, 20 SF personnel and nine LWEs]. These major incidents were:

April 9, 2014: Three personnel of the CoBRA unit of the CRPF were killed and another three were injured in a CPI-Maoist ambush near Chintagufa village.

March 11, 2014: Fifteen SF personnel (11 personnel of the CRPF, four of the District Police) were killed in a CPI-Maoist ambush near the forested road in Jeeram Ghati in Sukma District of south Chhattisgarh. One civilian, Vikram Nishad, also died in the crossfire, while another three were injured.

November 12, 2013: A day after the first phase of polling in Bastar zone, two BSF personnel and a civilian driver were killed and as many were injured in a landmine explosion triggered by CPI-Maoist cadres at Kerlapal, when the troopers were returning from poll duties.

April 16, 2013: Nine Maoists were killed in an encounter with SFs in the forest area of Puarti village.

According to partial data compiled by SATP, there have been at least 36 encounters between the SFs and LWEs in Sukma, since the formation of the District in January 2012. The Maoists have also attacked and fired at SF helicopters on at least three occasions and fired at SF camps on two occasions. On one occasion, the Maoists use a rocket launcher to attack the Gollapalli Police Station in the District, though the rocket missed the target and failed to explode. The Maoists have set ablaze vehicles on five occasions to disrupt road construction works.  

Sukma lies at the core of the Maoist 'guerrilla zone' in Chhattisgarh, and the state’s presence in many areas of the District is negligible, with the exception of the urban centres. Indeed, some of the worst Maoist attacks have been executed in the Sukma area before the District's formation, including the Chintalnad-Tadmetla massacre [April 6, 2010, 76 SF personnel killed]; the Chingavaram IED attack targeting persons returning from a Police recruitment examination [May 17, 2010, 44 killed]; Geedam [October 7, 2011, three Sashastra Seema Bal troopers killed]; Bhejji [June 11, 2011, three CRPF personnel killed]; Borguda [May 17, 2011, five CRPF personnel killed]; Gollapalli [June 23, 2010, three Chhattisgarh Police personnel killed]; Kerlapal [December 6, 2009, four civilians killed]; Tongapal [June 20, 2009, 12 CRPF personnel killed]; Kistaram [May 16, 2009, 11 persons, including eight CPI-Maoist cadres and three Special Police Officers (SPOs) killed]; Minta [April 10, 2009, 10 CRPF personnel, including a Deputy Commandant, and three suspected CPI-Maoist cadres killed]; Banda [June 19, 2008, three SPOs killed]; Tarlaguda [December 20, 2007, 12 Policemen killed]; Konta [November 29, 2007, 10 Mizoram Reserve Police personnel and two civilian drivers killed]; Jagurugondo [August 29, 2007, at least 12 SF personnel killed]; among others.

One of the most visible signs of Maoist dominance in Sukma is the condition of National Highway 221, which connects Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. In the 80-km stretch from Sukma to Konta, there is hardly any asphalt cover on the road. The contract for a 198-crore project to repair NH 221 was given awarded two years ago, but work is yet to begin.

Facing a shortage of contractors for carrying out development work in Naxalite-hit areas in the State, Chief Minister Raman Singh, during his meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in June 2014, sought two technical battalions of the Special India Reserve Battalions (SIRB) comprising engineers and trained construction personnel for projects in Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, CRPF has for the first time taken upon itself to build a 7km stretch in Sukma District. The particular project route is being kept under wraps for security reasons.

Ironically, Sukma was carved out of the Dantewada District as part of an effort to improve administrative efficiency. Addressing a public gathering to mark the creation of Sukma District Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, had said, “all arrangements for better education, healthcare, infrastructure would be in place soon for the newly-carved out District to enable speedy development in all areas”. However, things have hardly changed. On February 5, 2014 State Health Minister Amar Agrawal disclosed in the State Assembly that, in Sukma District, out of 55 posts of doctors sanctioned, 46 (84 per cent) were vacant, and there were no doctors in 13 hospitals. This compares abysmally with the generally poor condition of hospital administration in Chhattisgarh at large, where there are 1,012 Government hospitals, for which 2,948 posts of doctors are sanctioned, and of which 1,432 doctors were at work and 1,516 posts (51.42 per cent) were vacant.

Similarly, Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey informed the State Assembly on February 7, 2014, that, of 62 posts of Patwari, three posts of Revenue Inspector (RI) and three each for Tehsildar and Nayab Tehsildar sanctioned in the District, 17 posts of Patwari, 2 posts of RI and 4 posts of Tehsildar and Nayab Tehsildar, as well as one post of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) were lying vacant.

The primary education system in the District is also in a shambles. Media reports indicate that more than half the children have no access to classes. In the Konta Block, no teachers have been recruited or given charge in nearly 100 schools (primary, middle and higher secondary) since 2006. Further, the existing teachers find ways to get transferred to schools in villages mostly along highways, while in the interior areas there are school buildings but no teachers. Thus, for example, the Government school at Bhejji (Konta Block) along the highway has 11 teachers for just 33 students, while schools in villages like Ketemargu, Palachalma, Sakaner and Vinda, among others, are without teachers.

Interestingly, the State Employment Exchange itself faces an acute shortage of staff, despite the State Government’s sanction to fill the vacant posts, and is struggling to find suitable candidates for its own Head Office. S.S. Bhagat, Joint Director, State Employment Exchange, agreed that the staff crunch is affecting the routine work.

Almost 70 per cent of Sukma's population of over 250,159 is tribal, and this is among the most impoverished areas of the country. Reliable poverty statistics are unavailable and, ironically, at least 62,759 cards for below poverty-line (BPL) and marginal households under the Antyodaya and Priority Category programmes for access to subsidized foodgrain, have been issued (Chhattisgarh Economic Survey 2013-14), against a total population of 55,647 households in the District (Census 2011). The literacy rate in Sukma stands at 29.8 per cent, against a State average of 60.2 per cent. Only 34.3 per cent of the population has access to electricity supply, against a State average of 75.3 per cent. Just 7.4 per cent of Sukma's population has access to a toilet on their premises; 5.1 per cent of the population have access to tap water; and 94 per cent of the population relies on wood as the energy resources for cooking.

On June 20, 2014, around 200 villagers from the Chintagufa village in Sukma approached the Sukma Superintendent of Police (SP), D. Shrawan, seeking an end to the “daily atrocities” committed by CRPF personnel stationed near the village. These allegations could be genuine or ‘managed’; but in either case do not bode well for the security situation.

Earlier, during the Salwa Judum (anti-Maoist vigilante movement) period, the Sukma-Konta area, then part of Dantewada District, suffered untold miseries due to activities of Salwa Judum groups and the retaliation by Maoists. Thousands of tribals in the  Sukma-Konta region were displaced by the conflict, and at least six Salwa Judum relief camps - Dornapal, Errabor, Injeram, Konta, Bangapal, Kasoli – housing 27,727 persons were established. .  

In 2012, the District Police had 800 personnel, 700 assistant constables (earlier called SPOs) and some 3,000 CRPF personnel for security in the District. Though current level of deployment in the District are not available, after the March 11, 2014, ambush, State Police officials argued that “excessive deployment” may have triggered the attack. 

Sukma is a clear demonstration of the pattern where Maoists have capitalized on the absence of the state and its agencies, consolidating their mass base in a political and administrative vacuum, and evolving operational capabilities in a situation of widespread security vulnerabilities. Given the sheer magnitude of the cumulative deficit across all dimensions of security, governance and development, there is little hope that the people of this unfortunate region will experience any measurable relief from the crushing burdens of deprivation and violence in the foreseeable future.

PAKISTAN

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Media: In the Shadow of Death
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

Pakistan exist under a rule of terror imposed by a military-mullah combine, and it is, consequently, not surprising that the medium which attempts to unravel this truth and to criticize the prevailing order, has been under constant attack.

Indeed, workers and offices of Express News, one of the major media groups in Pakistan, have been relentlessly targeted. On January 17, 2014, unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants shot dead three Express News workers, after ambushing a Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) vehicle in the North Nazimabad area of Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh. Ehsanullah Ehsan, former ‘spokesman’ of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and, by way of ‘explanation’, argued, “I would like to present some of its reasons: At present, Pakistani media is playing the role of (enemies and spread) venomous propaganda against Tehreek-e-Taliban. They have assumed the (role of) opposition. We had intimated the media earlier and warn it once again that (they must) side with us in this venomous propaganda.”

On March 28, 2014, the analyst and Express News show Khabar Se Agay (Beyond News) anchor Raza Rumi survived a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) assassination attempt in Lahore, in which his driver, Mustafa, was killed, and his guard was injured. Rumi has persistently and sharply criticized extremist groups on his programme.

Again, on April 6, 2014, a hand grenade was lobbed on the house of Express News Peshawar Bureau Chief, Jamshed Baghwan, damaging the main gate and a portion of the house, located in the Murshidabad area of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Another explosion on July 2, 2014, damaged Baghwan's house and car. Earlier, on March 16, 2014, Security Force (SF) personnel had recovered and later defused a bomb planted at the house.

The Express News had been under attack in 2013 as well. Four unidentified assailants opened indiscriminate fire outside the entrance of the Express News office in Karachi on August 16, 2013, injuring two members of the staff. Again, on December 2, 2013, three persons were injured when unidentified assailants hurled two hand grenades and opened indiscriminate fire at the same location in Karachi.

These attacks are not aberrations. Top Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (47) was seriously wounded in a targeted shooting in Karachi on April 19, 2014. Mir's car was ambushed as soon as it left Karachi's Jinnah International Airport and was on the way to his Jang group-owned Geo TV's office. Mir had earlier told his family, friends, colleagues, Army and Government officials in writing that he would hold Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt. General Zaheerul Islam responsible if he was attacked. Hamid Mir had been relentlessly highlighting the issue of missing persons in Balochistan. The incident also demonstrated the ruthless attempts by the military establishment to silence an increasingly critical media, with the civilian Government expectedly toeing the Army's line.

In 2011, the ISI has been accused of abducting, torturing and killing Saleem Shahzad, a journalist working as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online (Hong Kong) and Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI). Shahzad disappeared in the evening of May 29, 2011, from Islamabad and his dead body was later discovered on May 31 from a canal in Mandi Bahauddin District of Punjab. His body bore marks of severe torture. Human Rights Watch researcher, Ali Dayan Hasan, claimed he had "credible information" that Shahzad was in the custody of ISI. Indeed, Shahzad's friends and colleagues revealed that the ISI had warned Shahzad at least three times prior to his death. In October 2010, Shahzad was summoned to ISI headquarters the day after publishing a sensitive article on Afghan Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar's capture.

The crisis is particularly acute in Balochistan, where state agencies, the ISI and their non-state proxies have executed the abduction and killing of a number of Baloch journalists who have sought to highlight the issue of forced disappearances of Baloch people. On August 21, 2013, for instance, the body of Haji Abdul Razzaq Baloch (42), a sub-editor at the Daily Tawar (Voice), a leading anti-military Baloch newspaper published in Urdu, was recovered from the Surjani Town area of Karachi. His face was mutilated, and his body showed signs of torture and strangulation. He was 'disappeared' from the Lyari area on March 24, 2013. Razzaq was also a supporter of the Baloch National Movement, a nationalist political organization.

Similarly, the mutilated body of Javid Naseer Rind, the former Deputy Editor of Daily Tawar, had been recovered from the Khuzdar area of Balochistan on November 6, 2011. He had been abducted by unidentified persons on September 10, 2011, from the Hub Chowki area of Lasbela town. His relatives blame ISI for his abduction and killing. 

At least 91 media personnel have been killed in Pakistan since 2000. Another 504 have either faced assault or have been injured in attacks. At least 440 media persons have been abducted/ arrested, while another 347 have been intimidated. According to the partial data compiled by the SATP, 2014 has already witnessed the killing of three media persons in the January 17 incident targeting Express News.

Emboldened by the implicit support of a military and political establishment that refuses to relinquish terrorism as an instrument of state policy, terrorists continue to spread fear. Significantly, on January 23, 2014, TTP issued a fatwa (edict), titled "Right and Wrong: Historic Decree of the Shura of Mujahideen Ulema about Dajjali (deceitful or false) Media". In the fatwa, the TTP blamed the media for acting against Islam and Muslims and promoting ideological anarchy by propagating ideas and deeds that go against Shariah. Signed by TTP ‘Central Deputy Chief’ Shaikh Khalid Haqqani, the fatwa singles out the reporters of five TV channels - Aaj, ARY, Express News, Geo TV and Samaa - who would be dealt with in accordance with TTP’s “jihad policy”. The cover page of the fatwa booklet displays a sword falling on the logos of large national and international media groups, including the Voice of America, Fox News, Associated Press, Pakistan Television, Geo, ARY, News 1, Samaa and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The fatwa also justified the killing of journalists affiliated with BBC, Deewa Radio, Mashaal Radio, Azadi Radio and Radio Apki Dunya.

Referring to the trend among Islamist terrorist formations that declare anyone who challenges the extremist ideology, or who dares to talk about a secular Pakistan, a traitor and to attack such persons, Raza Rumi warned of the "systematic purge" of intellectuals, writers and journalists: "Debating religion and its misinterpretation by some religious elements is frowned upon... Now dozens of militant groups are ready to 'fix' an errant writer or a speaker."  

David Griffiths, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia-Pacific Director, notes,

Pakistan's media community is effectively under siege. Journalists, in particular those covering national security issues or human rights, are targeted from all sides in a disturbing pattern of abuses carried out to silence their reporting.

Pakistan’s media community is effectively under siege. Journalists, in particular those covering national security issues or human rights, are targeted from all sides in a disturbing pattern of abuses carried out to silence their reporting.

Under the circumstances, many media groups those working and individual journalists have begun to eulogize extremism. Khan Zaman Kakar, an Islamabad-based scholar, thus observed, “A section of Pakistani media glorifies Taliban militants and their brand of Islam," adding that extremist elements were keenly aware of growing public and media criticism.

Despite mounting pressures, Pakistani media professionals have vowed to maintain a free Press. Peshawar-based senior journalist and Khyber Union of Journalists President Nisar Mehmood told Central Asia Online on January 16, 2014:

The media have to convey a true picture to the masses. No doubt journalists, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP] and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [FATA], are facing death threats, but still we have to depict a true picture of society and convey the truth.

Unfortunately, this is an increasingly unequal battle, as the extremist bullet and bomb put an end to every argument. Worse, where the Government was expected to act decisively and to protect media freedom, it has remained a silent spectator, or has engaged in meaningless public symbolism. Thus, the Chief Minister (CM) of Balochistan, Malik Baloch, on March 20, 2014, announced the formation of a Special Task Force to arrest culprits involved in the murder of around 30 journalists in the Province over the preceding seven years. “I order the formation of a task force to bring the killers of journalists to the book,” the CM declared before journalists protesting outside the Provincial Assembly. The President of the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ), Irfan Saeed, however, pointed out on the same day, “Despite repeated assurances, the killers of journalists are still at large”.

Significantly, on February 7, 2014, a BUJ delegation headed by its President Irfan Saeed, met with Balochistan’s Inspector General (IG) Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera to ask for immediate Government action to arrest those responsible for the killing of Mohammad Afzal Khawaja, a reporter for Daily Balochistan Times, on February 2. The IG had then promised that the Police department would take all measures to ensure the speedy arrest and trial of the reporter's murderers. However, no arrest has yet been made in this case. Way back on May 17, 2006, then Balochistan Home Secretary Humayun Khan, talking to a delegation of journalists, had stated that the Government was taking 'concrete measures' to improve the law and order situation in the Province and had assured them of providing complete security to journalists. Eight years later, the media is more vulnerable than it was before.

Similarly, Karachi Police spokesman Atiq Sheikh asserted, on July 18, 2014, that law enforcement agencies were guarding writers and publishers who had received threats from the terrorist groups. Given the past record, however, such statements will have no bearing on the actual security of journalists in an environment of enveloping insecurity, where both state and non-state actors have joined hands to target the media.

Indeed, in a report titled, “A bullet has been chosen for you: Attacks on journalists in Pakistan”, published on April 30, 2014, Amnesty International notes:

Pakistani journalists live under the constant threat of killings, harassment and other forms of violence from both the state and non-state actors, political parties and armed groups like the TTP and their ideological affiliates.

Numerous journalists interviewed by Amnesty International during the compilation of the report complained of harassment or attacks by individuals they claimed were connected to the establishment.

The Pakistani media has remained surprisingly vocal and substantially committed to the values of freedom, democracy, and even secularism. In a state where the principal tools of political management have relied on the use of extreme force and the ideological manipulation of extremist Islam, these are dangerous positions. The assault on the media by both the state and Islamist extremist formations supported by and opposed to the state, constitutes an existential challenge to Pakistan in its present - albeit ambivalent - form. The fragile support structures of freedom in Pakistan are now under terminal risk.

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

INDIA

Assam

Jammu and Kashmir

Manipur

Meghalaya

Left-wing Extremism

Chhattisgarh

Jharkhand

Odisha

Total (INDIA)

PAKISTAN

Balochistan

FATA

KP

Punjab

Sindh

Total (PAKISTAN)